400 gallon project

[untamed]

I think that I can now say that I actually have an aquarium. Still no fish, but yesterday was a significant one. Another run to Seattle and I have my first load of real, aquacultured Live rock.

This is about 1/2 of the rock that I will need overall. I haven't done any kind of aquascaping...just get the rocks into the tank so they can recover from the trip.

Here's what the tank looks like as of a few minutes ago. Even with the rocks just laying around the bottom, the tank depth makes it quite visually interesting already. The tall gorgonians help out a lot.


Here's a closer shot of one of the rocks. It has a 20"+ coral growing on it. I think it is a gorgonian of some kind.


Here's a close up of that branching coral pictured above. Can anyone identify what this is?


Here's another shot of another interesting rock. This one has about 15 good sized gorgonians (purple w/white, cream w/gold). They have had polyps extended since the moment they went into the tank. I need to do some research on care/feeding of gorgonians....


Finally, identified hitch-hikers included about a dozon large crabs, countless starfish, 1 large hermit and about 6 small ones, at least 3 pistol shrimp, and this porcelin crab. No mantis were seen, but they are being heard!

[justinl]

wow, yeah Id say you officially have an aquarium all right! im curious about that gorgonian too... very pretty.

[Skimmerking]

Tamed that is looking really awesome man. now you want to get a picture of the misses in the tank NOW!!!!!!!!

[Skimmerking]

you didnt need a permit to bring the rock over the border.

[Liverock]

No permits needed to drive to the US, pick up and drive back across....there are taxes involved, depending on the customs guy.......in the old days they said "what is live rock"?? but these days they have more experiance on the laws...and how to process a border crossing...Brad is the guy to ask!

Richard TBS

[untamed]

It has been my experience this far that they don't really understand what Live Rock is. (Why would they?) Now...I'm not going out of my way to explain it to them, either. I just answer the questions that they ask. "How long have you been in the US, What have you acquired?...How much is it worth?..."

When they ask, I just tell them that it is rock for my aquarium. You're not going to successfully explain how the biological filtration of a reef aquarium works to a border officer in 30 seconds...and you know...they don't really care...Sometimes, they'll sometimes ask a ton of questions, but they don't hear the answers. They just want to hear that you have answers.

They do struggle with how to classify it for importation purposes. The first time, they classified it as "sand" (because I did have some sand, as well). This time, it was classified as "limestone". Next time, I'll be bringing the previous paperwork and I'll be telling THEM how to classify it.

Either way, it is a product of the US and qualifies as duty-free. You pay your 6% GST and 7% PST and be on your way.

It's not the cheapest alternative, believe me...but the best rarely is.

[Delphinus]

Amazing score on those gorgs. If the polyps are brown or tan coloured then they will be photosynthetic in which case you're set. If non-photosynthetic well then you'll have to do a little work finding the right sized foods but if you can find that you should have some success with them.

[Delphinus]

How many lbs of rock is that so far (guesstimated) ?